Egg Fried Rice

This is an ultimate guide of egg fried rice. Egg fried rice is a classic Chinese dish that can be enjoyed as a main meal or as a side. It is made with rice, eggs and typically some very basic seasonings like salt or ground pepper. With this recipe, you will learn how to make perfect egg fried rice at home. And here is the newly invented golden style egg fried rice.

Why egg fried rice is so popular?

There are lots of fried rice recipe here but egg fried rice win the first ranking on my list and it is also extremely popular across the world. Almost every Chinese restaurant provides egg fried rice as an extension to common steamed rice. There are many reasons to love egg fried rice but I have listed my top 4 reasons.

• It is really delicious even with the very basic ingredients, egg, salt, soy sauce, pepper and green onions are everyday ingredients.
• It is a lovely way of using leftover rice.
• It is extremely versatile, can be adjusted by adding some other vegetables.
• It can be made quickly and easily, within 5 minutes, a lovely egg fried rice dish can be finished.

🍚 What You’ll Need

Let’s break down and get the tricks and tips to make the perfect egg fried rice at home. To make egg fried rice, you will need the following ingredients:

• Rice (preferably day-old or leftover), or fresh made rice can be used too.
• Eggs
• Cooking oil
• Salt and pepper
• Green onions
• soy sauce

Choose the right type of rice

If you are using leftover rice, just go ahead and make it no matter what’s the rice used already.  In theory, any type of rice can be used in fried rice. If you plan to make some steamed rice right perfectly for egg fried rice or other fried rice recipes, the common popular option should be basmati or jasmine rice. Rice contains more starch may lead to a sticky texture of the rice. So long grain indica rice will be a better option.

The secret of restaurant style egg fried rice is to make sure the rice is not mushy and wet. Leftover rice always meets the standard because of the water evaporation. But if you want to make egg fried rice right now and there is no leftover rice by hand. Chill the freshly cooked rice is another way.

Tips about the oil

Animal fat including fat and butter are better options than vegetable cooking oil. Animal fat can bring stronger flavors to the fried rice. I have tested with lots of versions, showing that animal fat work better. However vegetable cooking oil like peanut oil, corn oil can make the rice good tasting too. But it is extremely important to watch about how to serve with egg fried rice. If we only get a simple pickled side dish and a healthy vegetable soup, try butter or lard so you can get the best flavor of egg fried rice. To match with savory dishes, vegetable cooking oil is a better choice.

💭How to make fried rice perfectly

Standard of good egg fried rice

A good egg fried rice has standards.

1. the whole dish should be fluffy meaning that the rice grains are well separated, giving the dish a light feeling. In addition flavors can be totally wrapped for separated grains.
2. The egg fried rice should be balanced flavored, to avoid over greasy or over salted. If you plan to use soy sauce, then spare the salt.

Tips and Tricks for the frying

For wok beginners, it will a little bit hard to handle because the starch of the rice may lead to the sticky texture. If the rice starts to stick to the wok, the process can be extremely messy. So you can start with non-stick pan or following the tips to avoid sticky problem.

1. heat the wok until really hot, pre-heating wok is the key tip to avoid sticking problem. Heat it until there is smoke coming out.
2. swirl the oil in wok to cover the surface as much as possible.
3. keep high fire during the frying process
4. keep moving the grains during the whole stir-frying process to make sure each grains are evenly heated.

📋 Instructions

1.Prepare the rice
Break the rice with a turner in a pan and make sure the rice grains are separated. This can be finished in the stir frying process too. But pre-load this step can help the beginners. If you using freshly cooked rice, chill it in fridge for half hour.

2. Pre-heat the wok
Heat wok until smoky (super important), add oil and swirl the wok to help the oil cover the surface.

3. Fry the egg liquid
Add beaten egg in. Wait for 4-6 seconds and then break the eggs with chopsticks or turner. This is a lovely way because at this stage the cracks can be easily gotten.

4.Fry the rice
Add the rice in. Continue using the turner to pat the rice grains and move them until the rice pops up.

5. Add the seasonings.
Add salt and pepper and optionally pour the soy sauce over the edges.

6. Add scallions
Mix in green onion. Give a very quick stir fry and serve hot.

What to serve with egg fried rice

This egg fried rice can be served with savory stir frying dishes but the most recommended and popular partner is a soup.

Other Chinese fried rice recipes to try

• Chicken Fried Rice
• Soy Sauce Fried Rice
• Kimchi Fried Rice
• Chinese fired rice- yangzhou style